The majority of Scots, around 70 per cent, live in or near a town, not a city. When taken together our towns make up the fabric of society: a tartan that must incorporate the colours of clans as diverse and distinct as Paisley and Falkirk, Ayr and Dunfermline.

They are financial dynamos and social hubs, barometers of commercial and political cohesion or, at their simplest and best, those familiar places where we choose to work, meet, eat and sleep.

But for decades, green field housing developments and out-of-town retail and leisure complexes have lured people into cars and away from once-bustling market squares and high streets.

Scotland's towns have struggled to keep pace.  But all that is changing. The Scottish Government is now putting towns at the heart of economic recovery and joining forces with key partners to breathe new life and new thinking into town centres, to make them places where people in their tens of thousands will want to live again.

Each month the Sunday Herald is profiling our best-loved towns. We explore their ever-changing faces, their unique people and their extraordinary places, and we celebrate the creative ways in which planners, politicians and entrepreneurs are working together to create truly 21st century communities.

Introductory essay: Imagining the perfect Scottish town, by John Burnside

Chapter One: Ayr

Chapter Two: Paisley

Chapter Three: Borders Towns

Chapter Four: Falkirk

Chapter Five: Theme Towns

Chapter Six: Towns and Cities

Chapter Seven: Firth of Clyde